As for music, George at present appears to have come to a stop as a public composer or performer. In the last 15 years, he has produced regular albums, though his 1982 album, Gone Troppo, did not do very well. In 1984, he said he had retired from popular music. This does not mean he no longer makes music. He does, at home, but for his own amusement.
It is to be hoped this is only a temporary situation. George was different from John and Paul in music making, in that, while they wrote songs, he wrote feelings. ‘Writing a song was like going to confession,’ so he wrote in his book. It was when the spirit moved him, for good or ill, that George felt compelled to compose, which was why it took him so long to get going and why he always held back, till he had something to say. With Paul, making music is as natural as getting up and walking, eating and sleeping.
It is hard to tell which way George will go in future. Turning out to be a successful film producer has been a big surprise, at least to those who first met him as the baby of the group, shy and backward, compared with John and Paul. With George, there could be more surprises yet to come, new artistic or business endeavours. Or he might suddenly up and off to Hawaii, to the estate he has recently bought, to cultivate a tropical garden for a change, which would keep him well away from any dangerous photographers.
Unlike the other three, Paul started off his independent life very shakily indeed. His wife Linda wasn’t exactly loved by all and Paul took the brunt of the legal troubles, being hated by the other three for starting it, and being disliked by the fans, who mistakenly thought he’d broken up the group. He too became a recluse, very fashionable for superstars in the early ’70s. You had to get away and find yourself, just to prove you existed. There were rumours at one time that Paul was dead. He had in fact retreated to a small farm he’d bought, and still owns, in Argyllshire, Scotland.
‘When the Beatles split up, I felt on the rocks. I was accused of walking out on them, but I never did. I think we were all pretty weird at the time of the court cases. I’d ring John and he’d say don’t bother me. I rang George and he came out with effing and blinding, not at all Hare Krishna.’
He did odd songs for other people, and for films, then slowly he realized that he should do what he’d always enjoyed most in life — playing with a group on stage. This had always been his ambition for the Beatles, to get them out of the studio again, at least for occasional shows. So he decided to form his own group, Wings, along with Linda, his lady wife, who had no previous musical experience. The pop world had a jolly chuckle at this. They started off very quietly, arriving unannounced on university campuses, but it still didn’t stop Linda being loudly derided by the experts for her lousy voice and daring to muscle into Paul’s group. One of Wings’ early singles was called ‘Mary Had a Little Lamb’, which wasn’t very inspired. John was quoted as saying that Paul sounded like Engelbert Humperdinck, beyond which there is no nastier comparison. He went on to have a go at Paul in several of his own albums. In ‘Imagine’ he refers to Paul as ‘Muzak to my ears’ and talks about a ‘pretty face may last a year or two’.
Very slowly, Wings got better. On their tours, Paul wasn’t above throwing in the odd Beatles number, which everyone loved. Then, with ‘Band on the Run’ and ‘Venus and Mars’, he started producing world number ones again and almost, if not quite, repeating some of his Beatle success. His 1976 tour of the States was a sell-out and at last proved that Wings, Linda notwithstanding, was a very successful pop group.
Paul’s songs haven’t perhaps reached the heights of ‘Yesterday’ or ‘Eleanor Rigby’ but, commercially, Paul is far and away the most successful of the Beatles. ‘Mull of Kintyre’ in 1977 beat any Beatle single. Paul says he made more money with Wings than he did in the whole of his Beatle career. This isn’t too hard to believe, as so many people had shares in their lives as Beatles.
Wings has now come to an end. And several people who worked with him in that strange ad hoc group have since made capital out of saying how awful he was to work with, how bossy, how nasty he could be. Probably some truth in it. Paul is a perfectionist and can drive assistants mad with his demands. And working with Paul, or so it seems since the Beatles finished, you have to be an ‘assistant’, not a co-leader. Paul in turn now says he is fed up with running a band. ‘I hate groups — it’s like being stuck with bad relations.’
Paul today is still the public Beatle, giving interviews at fairly regular intervals, being open and honest about himself and his past, his worries and his pleasures. Naturally, as ever, there are people who suspect his motives, putting him down for being too charming. Paul may be a bit of an actor, acting the part of Paul McCartney, the charming superstar, still loved by every mum, which can make him sound rather prissy at times, but I believe he does tell the truth about himself.
He gave countless interviews during 1984 to promote his film Give My Regards to Broad Street, a film which was criticized, if not abused, by many reviewers. I always thought the criticism of Magical Mystery Tour was unfair — and it was Paul who was mostly blamed for that, being the main instigator. But it did have some good songs and was a modest, made-for-TV production. We all expected so much more from Broad Street, a full-length feature film with a good cast, but Paul’s script was so tame it gave little scope. Perhaps, now he has created his own film, he will stick to composing and singing, and even acting, well, now and again, and find experts to help on things like screenplays. I’m surprised he hasn’t tried an original stage musical. Think what a director like Trevor Nunn could do with Paul’s tunes.
Paul continues as a composer and singer on his own, even though Wings have flown, and will have many more Top Twenty hits. It would be impossible to imagine him doing anything else. He is also still very much a businessman, running his own company, McCartney Promotions Limited, which has offices in Soho Square, London. It handles all his own creations, plus other things they have bought, such as Annie and Grease, and scores of individual songs. He has at least put his money into music, rather than boring assets like property companies.
He has told the world often enough that what he cares for most is his family life. Heather, their oldest daughter (by Linda’s first marriage), is now 22 and working as a photographer’s assistant. Then there is Mary, 17, an attractive brunette, Stella who is 15 and red-headed, and James who is seven and fair-haired. All have gone to state schools, which is surprising, considering the many pressures. They live and play and stay together as one family, without nannies and without servants.
From the outside, their new home in Sussex can seem rather daunting, with searchlights and security fences, but all this is understandable, after what happened to John. The locals know it as Paulditz. But inside, it is surprisingly small, with only five bedrooms, and they live a modest, relaxed life with the usual family clutter. Linda was never the most house-proud of mothers, though she is a keen cook.
They moved there from an even smaller house nearby, knocking two old cottages together to get more security. They still have their London home in St John’s Wood, dear to all those Apple scruffs and ’60s Abbey Road groupies, and also their farm in Argyll in Scotland. Paul is a vegetarian, a noncigarette smoker, and does a bit of jogging, a bit of pottery, loves drawing and painting, watches a lot of TV. The influence of his heavy TV viewing was noticeable in Broad Street — all that glossy commercial stuff and the Children’s Hour Dickensian period flavour.